Pecos River Water Salvage Project Jedediah S. Rogers Historic Reclamation Projects Bureau of Reclamation 2009 Reformatted, reedited, reprinted by Andrew H. Gahan August 2013 Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. i Pecos River Basin Water Salvage Project .......................................................................... 1 Project Location .............................................................................................................. 1 Historic Setting ............................................................................................................... 2 Investigations .................................................................................................................. 4 Authorization .................................................................................................................. 8 The Plan .......................................................................................................................... 8 Construction and Rehabilitation Program ....................................................................... 9 Operation & Maintenance ............................................................................................. 12 Ecology and Hydrology ................................................................................................ 13 Continued Challenges ................................................................................................... 17 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 19 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 20 Manuscript and Archival Collections ........................................................................... 20 Government Documents ............................................................................................... 20 Books, Articles and Other Reports ............................................................................... 21 Internet Sources ............................................................................................................ 22 Index ................................................................................................................................. 23 Pecos River Basin Water Salvage Project Although the Bureau of Reclamation is not usually connected to the business of vegetative eradication, the Pecos River Basin Water Salvage Project in New Mexico and Texas did just that—a large-scale attempt to control phreatophytes (high water- consuming plants) in the Pecos River basin. The consumption of water by phreatophytes, especially the invasive, nonnative saltcedar, is a continuing problem in the arid and semiarid regions of the western United States. When the clearing operations began in 1967, there were over 200,000 acres of saltcedar in the project area consuming an estimated five or six acre feet of water per year per acre.1 In the Pecos River basin, where water is in short supply, the impact of this invasive growth was particularly acute, necessitating the need for a government-funded salvage project to rid the area of saltcedar and other phreatophytes. Project Location The Pecos River originates in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of north-central New Mexico and cuts through the semi-arid landscape of eastern New Mexico and western Texas. In all, the Pecos River basin extends some 525 miles to its mouth on the Rio Grande. The area features short winters and long, hot summers. Annual rainfall averages close to thirteen inches—most of that during the monsoon season—but precipitation is often erratic and departs commonly from the average. 1 R. J. Tipton, “One or the Other: A Resume of Pecos River Problems,” speech given in Santa Fe on February 9, 1953, 6, in RG 115, Records of the Bureau of Reclamation, Project Reports, ACC # 8NN-115- 85-019, Box 950, National Archives and Records Administration–Rocky Mountain Region, Denver, Colorado; hereafter cited as RG 115. The project area encompasses nearly the entire length of the basin. Reclamation planned to clear phreatophytes in sections along the flood plain of the Pecos River all the way from Santa Rosa, New Mexico, to Girvin, Texas. The project is roughly bounded by U.S. Highway 66 to the north and U.S. Highway 67 to the south. Along that stretch of the Pecos River are four major earth dams in four New Mexico counties (Guadalupe, DeBaca, Chaves, and Eddy) and three Texas counties (Loving, Reeves, and Ward).2 Historic Setting For thousands of years the Pecos River has been a source of life for plants, animals, and humans. Yet for all its life-giving qualities in the dry deserts of the Southwest, the poor water quality of the Pecos River is almost legendary. Native Americans are said to have complained “about the effects of Pecos water on the human digestive system.” As Lieutenant S. G. French of the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers described it in 1849, “It is a narrow deep stream, its waters turbid and bitter, and … [it carries] more impurities than any other river of the south. The only inhabitants of its waters are catfish.” Indeed, the river’s high salinity levels are responsible for numerous animal and human deaths over the years. For early settlers who wanted to be sure to drink clean water, a good rule of thumb was to observe where animals returned over and over again to drink water. There they were sure to find a clean source.3 The Pecos River basin faces other problems besides salt, silt, and dirt. The river’s water is over appropriated, which means that there is a perennial shortage for even existing water users. Add the usual southwestern phenomena of droughts and floods to 2 U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Final Environmental Statement, Pecos River Basin Water Salvage Project, New Mexico-Texas, Southwest Regional Office, Amarillo, Texas, 1979, B-1. 3 Quoted in R. Jensen, C. Hart, M. Mecke, and W. Hatler, The Influence of Human Activities on the Waters of the Pecos Basin of Texas, TWRI technical report SR-2006-03, 2006, 8; Stephen Bogener, Ditches Across the Desert: Irrigation in the Lower Pecos Valley (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2003), 15. Pecos River Basin Water Salvage Project Historic Reclamation Projects Page 2 this equation, and a volatile situation arises. The 1888-1889 drought is best know for the number of cattle deaths on the range, but other dry spells over the last century have been almost as severe. Major floods, like Hurricane Alice on the lower Pecos River in 1954, contributed to sedimentation and caused property damage.4 Each problem is connected in some way to the infestation of the saltcedar (Tamarisk ramosissima) in the Pecos River basin. The spread of non-native phreatophytes, particularly the saltcedar, is partly responsible for poor water quality, low flow volume, silt buildup, channel morphology, and disturbed wildlife.5 Americans welcomed the plant from Europe in the early 1800s as an ornamental decoration and then, in the early twentieth century, as a means of stabilizing stream banks in the Southwest. When the plant spread, however, digging its roots deep in such river systems as the Gila, Salt, Pecos, Colorado, and Rio Grande, it became clear that its vices far outnumbered its virtues. As R. J. Tipton, a consultant to the Pecos Water Commission, explained in 1951, the proliferation of saltcedar in the McMillan Delta in southeastern New Mexico initially had positive impacts that were in the long run outweighed by negative impacts: These cedars spread rapidly and performed a useful function for the Carlsbad Irrigation District. They effectively provided a strainer for the silty water coming down the river, thereby causing the silt to deposit in the delta area and to extend farther upstream, permitting only the fairly clear water to enter the reservoir… However, in performing this useful function for man, the salt cedars took their toll in terms of consumption of large quantities of water.6 The saltcedar consumes large quantities of water because its deep roots are well adaptable to the dry, desert environment and to saline soil. It contributes to salinity in the 4 Jensen, et al., The Influence of Human Activities on the Waters of the Pecos Basin of Texas, 4. 5 Jeffrey Lovich, “A Brief Review of the Impacts of Tamarisk, or Saltcedar on Biodiversity in the New World,” http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/docs/news/workshopSep96/lovich.html (accessed February 6, 2008). 6 Tipton speech, 3, in RG 115, Project Reports, ACC # 8NN-115-85-019, Box 950. Pecos River Basin Water Salvage Project Historic Reclamation Projects Page 3 soil and water from the salt it gathers from below the surface and deposits above ground. Saltcedars can reach heights of 12 to 15 feet and settle in dense thickets, choking out native plants and trees along riparian corridors. In the Southwest, where they occupy some one million acres of real estate, they alter, in dramatic ways, local ecosystems and economies.7 Investigations Of all the vices of the saltcedar, the most alarming was its heavy use of precious desert water. Early on, it was by no means clear just how much water these plants consumed—perhaps one acre of saltcedar used five or six acre feet per year. No estimate was absolute, since consumptive use of water depends on any number of environmental factors.